I haven't said too much about what's been going on, but we've had heated discussions about it here at home. What first offended me was that all those kids were going to be given mandatory DNA testing. That's completely creepy-DNA testing ought to be voluntary-was the State of Texas going to add DNA results to fingerprints of all the kiddies? And that it appeared the original call about the ranch was from some crank in Colorado.

Last night I was watching, briefly, Larry King and some guy from the ranch said that he wasn't going to let the CPS people from Texas in again without a warrant because he did so the first time and they took all the kids. I hadn't realized until then that the State of Texas didn't even have a warrant where they had to prove probable cause (and remember, despite what Alberto Gonzales tried to peddle, it is NOT *reasonable suspicion" but PROBABLE CAUSE, based on someone having to go before a judge and get a warrant based on at least.. SOMETHING).

I also was just flabbergasted that 400 kids would be taken away from their parents and farmed out to foster homes. I mean, we live in the United States. Hub said that, to him, if child abuse was going on, then they SHOULD be taken away but I said, that's the point, how do we KNOW that child abuse was going on and especially with all 400 kids? From what I read a number of the families that lived there were autonomous familes that lived in their own homes. And, frankly, if the State of Texas didn't want to have polygamous families living here, then why didn't they stop it when they first learned about it? It's sort of like Utah, where polygamy goes on and is winked at. I'm not getting into a discussion of whether it violates religious freedoms for people exercise polygamy or not, but the fact is that if it is considered against the law in a state, then the state has an obligation to do something based on THAT law and not this other stuff that seems flimsy at best. I also don't know that maybe there might NOT have been abuse going on, but it would have been up to the State of Texas to PROVE that before raiding the whole place of all the children.

And that's just what the court of appeals said. This is a complete smackdown not only of the actions of the State of Texas but also the judge who ruled on this stuff before.

SAN ANGELO, Texas – A state appellate court has ruled that child welfare officials had no right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect's ranch.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the grounds for removing the children were “legally and factually insufficient” under Texas law.

Child welfare officials removed the children on the grounds that the sect pushed underage girls into marriage and sex and trained boys to be grown-up predators.

The appellate court ruled the chaotic hearing held last month did not demonstrate the children were in any immediate danger, the only measure of taking children from their homes without court proceedings. The ruling came as judges were signing off on individual custody plans in San Angelo.